The present invention relates to a vehicle door reinforced against side impacts.
It is known that motor vehicle doors generally comprise an outer panel and an inner box-section panel which are interconnected at their lower portion by a door bottom wall extending transversely with respect to the two panels.
These doors offer relatively low resistance to side impacts.
To overcome this drawback, motor vehicle doors are often reinforced by reinforcing bars which extend behind the outer panel of the door and are situated virtually halfway up the door.
However, these reinforcing bars are insufficient to prevent the door from opening toward the inside of the vehicle during a side impact at a speed below 60 km/h.
This opening of the door toward the inside of the vehicle is harmful to the passengers.
This opening is due to the fact that the lower portion of the door situated below the aforementioned reinforcing bars has inadequate strength. Specifically, this inadequate strength allows said portion to deform by passing above the rebate of the vehicle sill box-section. Since the lower portion of the door is no longer retained by this rebate, the door can open inwardly, seriously injuring, or even killing, the passengers.